Transferring and alining machine.



T. S. GARRETT.

TBANSPBRRING AND 'ALINING MACHINE. APPLICATION Hum MAY 22, 1913.

1,1 32,8Q0y Patnted Mar. 23, m5.

3 SHEETS-$11331 1.

WITIVESSES: a} INVENTOR fl I 7%0/7/04'6? Gar/67f A TTOR/VEV T. S. GARRETT. TRANSFERRING AND ALINING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED MAY 22, 1 9l3.

1,1 32,80. Pateigted Mar. 23, 1915.

5 s SHEETSVSHEET o Q a \j- 1 t? El e o0 WITNESSES: l/Vl/E/VTOR 1% of, 720mm; 5: Gar/eff 6 WW l BY A TTOR/VEY T. S. GARRETT.

TRANSFERRING AND ALINING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 22, 1913.

1 1 32,8%O, Patented Mar. 23, 1915.-

I 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

WITNESSES: INVENTOH A TTOR/VEY mane ermine PATENT canton.

THOMAS S. GARRETT, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.

TRANSFEERING AND ALINING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 23, 1915.

Application filed May 22,1913. Serial No. 769,257.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS S. GARRETT, citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, in the county of King and State of Washington, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Transferring and Alining Machines, of which the folloW-' and easily operated by mechanical power in labor.

I accomplish this object by devices illusa manner to effect a saving in both time and trated in the accompanying drawings,

Wherein Figure 1, is a plan view ,of a transferring and alining machine embodying my invention; Fig. 2, is a view in side elevation of the same with some parts broken away to disclose other parts; Fig. 3 is an enlarged view in vertical cross-section-on line :0, w of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 illustrates a live skid embodied in my invention; Fig. 5, shows a reversing skid; Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of an actuating lever; Fig. 7, is an enlarged plan view of a spike feed-roll and means for raising and lowering the same; and Fig. 8, is a view in side elevation of the device shown in Fig. 7.

Like reference numerals indicate like parts throughout the drawings.

In a general way the device comprises a set of driven rolls for feeding forward a cant or piece of timber, a set of idler rolls disposed parallel to the said set of driven rolls and spaced therefrom, transverse horichine may be actuated independently of the other skids for the purpose of alining a cant or timber that may be on the idler rolls and a vertically adjustable spike feed-roll associated with the idler rolls for feeding the cant or timber forward to an edger or sawing machine. Referring to the drawings, wherein I have illustrated a practical form of my invention, 10, 10 are driven feed rolls suitably journaled in a frame 11 and adapted to be rotated by bevel gears 12, 12 actuated by a drive shaft 13, to move forward thereby a cant or timber.

[14, 14 areidler rolls suitably journaled in a frame 15, disposed parallel with the frame 11 and spaced transversely therefrom.

16 is a transverse vertically adjustable spike feed-roll associated with the idler rolls 14 and adapted to be rotated to feed forward thereby a cant or timber to an edger or sawing machine 17.

A plurality of transverse beams 18 are disposed intermediate the driven rolls 10 and the idler rolls 14 to form a support, and transverse sectional live skids, each composed of sections 19 and 20 pivotally connected by pins 21, 21 and pivotally mounted on brackets 22, 22 intermediate the two sets of rolls, are disposed to extend across the entire width of the machine and normally to lie below the horizontal plane of the upper surface of the rolls in such manner that a cant or timber normally may pass over them. Each of said live skids is'provided with an endless traveling chain 23 adapted, when the free ends of the sections 19 are raised, to pick up a cant or timber from the feed-rolls 10 and transfer it to the supports 18, and

when the free ends of the sections 20 are raised, to pick up a cant or timber from the supports. 18 and transfer it to the idler rolls 14. g

The chains 23 pass over suitable idler sprockets 24,24 associated with the live skid sections 19 and 20 thence around a sprocket wheel 25 that is secured to one of two driven shafts 26, 26whoseaxes are in the same line and which are journaled in suitable bearings and preferably disposed below the supporting floor 27 on which the machine rests. T he left hand shaft 26 is provided with a gear wheel 28, adapted to mesh with a pinion 29 disposed on a shaft 30, said shaft 30 being provided with a pulley 31, adapted to be rotated, as by a belt, connected with a source of power (not shown). The shafts 26, 26 are further provided with a clutch 32, that is adapted to connect and disconnect them, such clutch 32 being connected by means of a rod, indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, with an operating lever 33, positioned at the forward end of the machine, and so disposed that all live skids between said clutch 32 and the forward end of the machine may be disconnected by uncoupling said clutch if it be desired to use only the live skids at the outer end of the machine for alining a cant or timber that is to be fed to a saw;

The outer ends of the live skid sections 19 are each pivotally connected with one end of a link 34, which has its other end attached to a crank-arm 35, fixedly secured to a longitudinally disposed shaft 36 that is journaled in suitable bearings provided on the floor 27. Theshaft 36 is provided with a crank-arm 37 which is connected with a piston rod 38 whose piston is disposed within a cylinder 39 and adapted to be moved up or down by fluid under pressure, as compressed air, steam and the like, which may be admitted into the cylinder 39 through a suitably controlled valve 40, from a source of supply not shown.

The ends of the skid sections 19 are adapted to be automatically raised by means of a bumper-arm 41, disposed at the front end of the frame 11 and in the line of the rolls 10 in such manner that said bumper-arm 41 may be engaged by the front end of a cant or timber that is being fed forward by the rolls 10. The arm 41 is pivotally secured at its bottom end and is pivotally connected with one end of a bell crank 42, by a link 43, the other end of the bell-crank 42 being pivotally connected with the stem of the valve in such a manner that when the cant or timber engages the arm 41 to swing it forward, the valve 40 is shifted to admit fluid under pressure to the lower end of the cylinder 39 to cause the piston therein to move upwardly to turn the shaft 36 and raise the ends of the sections 19, thus to lift the cant or timber above the feed-rolls 10 and shift it laterally to the supports 18. When the end of the cant or timber has been moved sidewise and the bumper 41 released, a spring 44 operates to bring the bumper again back to its normal position and causes the valve 40 to open an exhaust of the cylinder 39 and to lower again the ends of the sections 19 below the plane of the upper surface of the rolls 19. The sections 19 also may be actuated independently of a cant or timber and for this purpose a lever'45, connected with the bell-crank 42 by a connector 46, indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1, is used. The lever 45, as shown in Fig. 6, is pivotally mounted on a bolt 47, which bolt 47 is pivotally mounted on a bracket in such manner that the lever may be free to swing in four directions and an auxiliary lever 48, similar to the lever 45, and disposed on the opposite side of the sawing machine, is similarly mounted, and is connected with the lever 45 by adink 49 in such manner that the two levers shall move simultaneously when oscillated laterally, thus enabling the operator to control the transferring mechanism from either side of the sawing machine 17, as clearly illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3, the lever 48 being a two way lever that is adapted to swing the lever 45 sidewise of the machine.

It is sometimes desired to lower the bumper-arm 41 to allow a cant or timber to pass over said bumper-arm 41 to be carried forward on a continuation of the live rolls 10 instead of being transferred to the idler rolls and fed to the saw, and for this purpose l have pivotally secured the lower end of the bumper-arm 41 to the outer end of the horizontal arm of a bell-crank 50 which is pivotally secured in a suitable bracket, and has its upper end pivotally connected with a lever 51 that is disposed at the outer end of the machine in such manner that when the lever 51 is thrust forward it may cause the outer end of the horizontal arm of the bell-crank 50 to swing downwardly thus to lower the bumper 41 below the plane of the top surface of the rolls 10 without actuating the cylinder 39 to raise the ends of the live skid sections 40. The bumper 41 may be raised again to its normal position sections 19 to transfer a cant or timber from the supports 18 to the idler rolls 14 and for this purpose said outer ends of the sections 20 are each pivotally connected with one end of a link 52 which has its other end pivotally connected with a crank-arm 5.3 that is finedly secured to a longitudinally disposed shaft 54 which is journaled in suitable bearings provided on the door 27. The shaft 54 is provided with a crank-arm 55 which is connected with a piston rod 56 whose piston is disposed within a cylinder 57 that is similar to the cylinder 39, and that has a similar valve that is connected with the lever 45 by a connector 58 in such manner that if the lever 45 he oscillated sidewise then the connector 58 may act to open the valve associated with the cylinder 57, to admit a pressure of iiuid therein to raise its piston thus to raise the free ends of theskid sections to pick up a cant or timber from the supports 18 and transfer it to the idler rolls 14.

A plurality of reversing skids 59 are disposed to extend across the frame 15 adjacent to the live skid sections 20 and are pivotally secured to said frame at their inner ends and have their outer ends connected'by links 60, 60 with arms 61, 61 that are secured to a longitudinally extending shaft 62 which is suitably journaled in bearings disposed on the floor 27 and provided with a crank-arm 63 that is connected with a piston rod 64, whose piston is disposed within a cylinder 65 which is similar to the cylinders 39 and 57 and which has a similar Valve connected with the lever 45 by a connector 66, as shown in Fig. 1, in suchmanner that if I the lever 45 be oscillated longitudinally of the machine the connector 66 may act to open the valve connected with the cylinder 65, to admit a pressure of fluid within said cylinder to actuate its piston. to raise the outer endsof the reversing skids 59, thus causing traveling chains 67 associated therewith to raise a cant or timber and move it laterally inward on the idler rolls 14 against a guide rail 68 that is provided on the ends of supports 18, for the purposeof alining said timber. In case the cant or timber be tapered or have uneven edges and thus require further alinement the operator at the forward end of the machine may uncouple the clutch 32 by shifting the lever 33 to disconnect from the actuating mechanism all skids except the live skid and the reversing skid at the outer end of the machine, which two end skids may then be actuated by manipulating the lever 45 to bring the cant into the exact alinement desired. The chains 67 pass over sprocket wheels 97, 97 as more clearly shown in Fig. 5, which sprocket wheels 97, 97 are secured. on shafts 98 98 which is adapted by suitable means to travel wheels 99, 99 over which pass the driven chains 23, 28, which chains 23, 23 may move in the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 4, thus serving to move the chains 67 in a reverse direction.

The forward end of the frame 15 may be provided with a transverse plate 69 that has a series of holes 70 in which guide pins may be placed for the purpose of guiding a tapering piece of timber to the sawing machine.

The spike feed-roll 16 is fixedly secured to a shaft 72 which is suitably journaled in bearings 73 and adapted to slide vertically in guideways 74, that are provided on the frame 15, and which is disposed to be operated in connection with the idler rolls '14 to move a cant or timber forward on said rolls. The shaft 72 is provided with a sprocket wheel 7 5 that is adapted to be connected by a sprocket chain 76 with another sprocket wheel 77 which is disposed on a shaft 78 that is connected by bevel gears 79, 79 with the shaft 26.

The spike feed-roll 16 is adapted to be raised by a fulcrumed foot lever 80, that extends to a. point within convenient reach of the operator in charge of the lever 45, and the end of the foot lever 80 adjacent to the spike feed-roll 16 is pivotally connected by a link 81 with an arm 82that is secured on a transverse shaft 83 which is suitably journaled on the frame 15, the ends of the shaft 83 being provided with lever-arms 84 that are adapted to engage with the outer ends of the shaft 72 in such manner that when the free end'of the lever 80 is depressed the spike feed-roll 16 is lifted into engagement with the under side of a cant or timber to feed it forward over the roller 14.

The operation of my device may be described as follows: A cant or timber carried forward over the driven rolls 10 will strike the bumper 41 andswing it forward to actuate the valve 40 of the cylinder 39 thus'to cause it to raise the'free ends of the live skid sections 19, and lift the cant or timber from the driven rolls and transfer it sidewise to the supports 18. As the timber moves sidewise it releases the bumper 41, which immediately resumes its normal position and causes the cylinder 39 to exhaust and permit the sections 19 to be lowered to their normal positions. When it is desired to transfer the timber to the idler rolls 14, the operator shifts the lever 45 to open the valve of the cylinder 57 to cause it to raise the outer ends of the sections 20, which sections 20 will pick up the cant or timber from the sup ports 18 and transfer it sidewise on to the idler rolls 14. The operator may then move the lever 45 in a direction lengthwise of the machine to open the valve associated with the cylinder 65 and cause the piston within said cylinder to operate to raise the outer ends of the reversing skids to move the timber sidewise against the guide rail 68, to aline it. If the timber be tapered or have uneven edges so-that alinement other than that secured by moving it againstthe guide rail 68 be required then the forward end of the timber may be placed in its proper position and there be secured by pins thrust in the holes 70, then the clutch 32 may be uncoupled and the lever 45 moved to actuate the live skid and the reversing at the outer end of the frame 15, to move the outer end of-the timber and secure the exact alinement the supports 18, the first timber being moved far enough to project over' the idler rolls or even to rest its edge on said rolls in such manner that it may be picked up by the sections and transferred to said idler rolls without danger of the traveling chains of the sections 20 engaging the other timbers on the supports 18.

Manifestly numerous changes in form of details and the plan of construction of my transferring and alining machine may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention or sacrificing any of its advantages.

What I claim is:

1. In a machine for transferring and alining logs and cants of timber, the combination with afixed supporting frame adapted to supporta timber, of a plurality of driven rollers disposed adjacent to one side of said supporting frame and rotatably mounted in suitable bearings with their axes disposed parallel to each other and at right angles to the side of said fixed supporting frame, means for producing a synchronous rotation of all of said rollers, a plurality of idler rollers disposed with their ends adjacent to the opposite side of said supporting frame and mounted each to be independently rotatable in suitable bearings and disposed with their axes at right angles to said opposite side of said supporting frame, and a plurality of live skids disposed each at a different intermediate point between the ends of said supporting frame and transversely thereof to extend throughout the distance between the outer ends of said driven rollers and the outer ends of said idler rollers with its top surface normally lower than the top surface of said supporting frame and lower than the uppermost part of any of said rollers, each of said live skids comprising two hinged sections in association with an endless chain which is adapted by suitable means to travel always in the same direction lengthwise of said live skid and which chain is further adapted to be raised and lowered by said hinged sections, each of said hinged sections being adapted by suitable means to have its free end raised and lowered. 2. In a machine for transferring and alining logs and cants of timber, the combination with a fixed supporting frame adapted to support a timber, of a plurality of driven rollers disposed adjacent to one side of said supporting frame and rotatably mounted in suitable bearings with their axes disposed parallel to each other and at right angles to such side of said fixed supporting frame; means for producing a synchronous rotation of all of said rollers; a plurality of idler rollers disposed with their ends adjacent to the opposite side of said supporting frame and mounted each to be independently rotatable in suitable bearings and disposed with their axes at right angles to said opposite side of said supporting frame; a plurality of live skids disposed each at a difierent intermediate point between the ends of said supporting frame and transversely thereof to extend throughout the distance between the outer ends of said driven rollers and the outer ends of said idler rollers with its top surface normally lower than the top surface attached to an arm that is hinged to a suitable support and disposed in association with said idler rollers and each to be adjacent to and parallel. with a section of a different one of said first named live skids, and each adapted by suitable means independently to have its free end raised and lowered; and means for causingthe chains of said last named live skids to travel in a direction that is opposite to the direction of travel of the chains of said first named live skids.

3. A machine for transferring and alining logs and cants of timber which embodies a fixed supporting frame, a. plurality of driven rollers disposed adjacent to one side of said supporting frame and rotatably mounted in suitable bearings with their axes disposed parallel to each other and at right angles to the side of said supporting frame, a plurality of idler rollers disposed with their ends adjacent to the opposite side of said supporting frame, a plurality of live skids disposed each at a different point between the ends of said supporting frame and transversely thereof to extend throughout the distance between the outer ends of said driven rollers and the outer ends of said idler rollers with its top surface normally lower than the top surface of said supporting frame and normally lower than the uppermost portion of any of said rollers, and each of said live skids embodying an endless carrier chain which is adapted by suitable means to be caused to travel always in the same direction and which is further adapted by suitable means to be raised to lift and carry a cant of timber, a plurality of' other live skids, each comprising an endless carrier chain mounted on sprocket wheels attached to an arm that is hinged to a suitable support and disposed in association with said idler rollers and adjacent to one of said .carry a cant of timber, and means for causing the chains of said second named skids to travel in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the chains of said first named skids.

In Witness whereof, I, hereunto subscribe my name this 12th day of May A. D., 1913.

THOMAS S. GARRETT. Witnesses:

L. L. WALTERS, F. C. MATHENY. 

